Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
ARCHTHEO '20 / XIV. INTERNATIONAL THEORY AND HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE CONFERENCE, İstanbul, Türkiye, 12 - 14 Kasım 2020, ss.249-256, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
It is commonly accepted that the Industrial Revolution began with the steam engine invention by James
Watt in 1765. Industry is all of the actions applied to process raw materials and the tools used to
accomplish these actions. Before the Industrial Revolution, production took place in small workshops,
but with the invention of steam machine, mass and continuous production started in large factories.
The terms ‘speed’, ‘time saving’ and ‘standardization’ were used in production field for the first time
during this period. Thousands of people migrated from rural to urban in order to work in factories
causing unplanned urbanization in cities. On the other side, iron and steel production improved
significantly. Inevitably, architecture changed significantly, and new types of structures and new plan
typologies such as factories, train stations, public buildings, and multi-storey houses emerged. Also,
traditional building materials and methods disappeared with technological developments and
construction works gained a scientific quality.
This study is a research study to understand the impact of technology and production methods that
developed with the Industrial Revolution on architectural materials. One of the most important
developments affected the use of architectural materials are the innovations in the production of iron
and steel materials. Eventually, iron and steel have replaced traditional building materials and their
use has increased rapidly due to their properties such as easy and low-cost production, and high
temperature resistance. The Iron Bridge in England is the first structure made entirely of iron
indicating the rise of iron from its supporting material position to the position of main component of
the structure. Another important architectural work is Crystal Palace again in England, where cast iron
and glass were used together for the first time. Other than these, glass and reinforced concrete are
other important materials that emerged with the Industrial Revolution. In addition, it has been seen
that when concrete and steel are used together, they can successfully cross wide openings and create
wide openings on the facade of the structure. As a result of this, glass panels of various sizes installed
on façades of structures led to a great change in architecture field. Besides the materials mentioned
above, asbestos, aluminum, plywood and wood materials began to be used with the Industrial
Revolution.
Based on the above-mentioned information, this study is a research study made to determine the
impact of technologies and production methods that developed with the Industrial Revolution on
architectural materials. Research made for this study indicates that the Industrial Revolution has a
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great impact on materials and thus on architecture. In the study, detailed information, and findings
about the changing use of materials and developing production techniques are associated with the
Industrial Revolution and their reflection on architecture is mentioned. An extensive literature review
is made, and the obtained data are carefully synthesized throughout the study.